In Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula, there is a scene where the characters Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra share a kiss. This unexpected moment of intimacy between the two female friends has sparked much discussion and debate among readers and scholars for decades.
Some key questions that arise around Mina and Lucy’s kiss are: Why did Stoker choose to include this scene? What purpose does it serve in the broader narrative? And what does it reveal about gender, sexuality, and relationships in Victorian England?
Examining the social context, plot, and character dynamics of Dracula can provide insight into Stoker’s motivations and the deeper meaning behind Mina and Lucy’s kiss.
The social context of Dracula’s publication
Dracula was published in 1897, at the height of the Victorian era in Britain. This was a period of major social, economic, and technological change. Traditional values and norms were being challenged and renegotiated. Gender roles and sexuality were two areas where boundaries were shifting, albeit slowly and within limits.
The Victorian conception of female sexuality was complex. On one hand, women were considered passive, modest and disinterested in sex. But on the other, there was an undercurrent of anxiety about unrestrained female sexuality and the threats it posed to the social order.
This dichotomy between feminine purity and lurking sexual danger played out in Dracula. Mina and Lucy represent the ideal of Victorian womanhood – moral, dutiful and innocent. But vampire Lucy’s transformation corrupts this, hinting at an uncontrolled eroticism at odds with her chaste image.
The kiss between Mina and Lucy occurs at a liminal moment when the safe certainties of their world are breaking down. The familiar is becoming strange, the virtuous women are facing sexual corruption. This backdrop gives deeper resonance to their unexpected same-sex kiss.
The narrative purpose of the kiss
Looking at the specific narrative context of the kiss gives insight into Stoker’s intent. At this point in the story, Lucy has started her transformation into a vampire after being attacked by Dracula. The kiss happens during one of Mina’s visits to care for weak, ill Lucy.
Lucy is described as restless, excited and having “unnatural brilliance” in her eyes. She seems to move in a “languorous, voluptuous grace” that fascinates Mina. When Mina stoops to kiss her, Lucy puts her arms around Mina and hugs and kisses her passionately, in a way Mina describes as neither “wanton nor lewd”, but simply too loving for a friend.
This charged moment demonstrates the change and sexual awakening happening in Lucy as she transforms. Her passionate kiss highlights the unleashing of unfamiliar sensuality, startling to sheltered Mina.
In the shipboard journal entries framing the main story, Mina speculates the strange incident was due to Lucy’s illness. She buries it as an aberration, trying to explain it away within norms of female friendship.
The kiss plants the seeds of transformation ahead for Mina, foreshadowing threats to her innocence. By depicting this intimate encounter between Lucy and Mina, Stoker adds layers of sexual tension and ambiguity to the story. The kiss emphasizes Lucy’s corruption and forewarns that Mina may face similar perils.
The characters of Mina and Lucy
To better understand the kiss, it’s also useful to look deeper at the two characters involved.
Lucy Westenra is young, attractive, wealthy and socially desired. She revels in her romance with three suitors who propose to her. In many ways Lucy embraces the giddy freedom of youth and opportunity afforded to privileged Victorian women.
Mina Murray is older, educated, career-oriented and engaged to Jonathan Harker. More sober and serious than Lucy, she represents duty and virtue. She uses new technology like typewriters, recorded diaries and telegrams in clever ways that aid the fight against Dracula.
Despite their differences, Mina and Lucy are very close. They are free to show affection with kisses, touches and loving words like “darling” and “dearest”. This passionate female friendship was accepted in the Victorian era. The kiss they share moves their relationship outside of those bounds.
Lucy initiates it, indicating her changing character under vampire influence. For demure Mina, it is surprising yet not entirely unpleasant. The reactions reveal key facets of both women’s natures. The kiss foreshadows choices ahead, of corruption or propriety.
Interpretations and significance
So what are we to make of this enigmatic kiss between Mina and Lucy? Here are some possible interpretations:
– It symbolizes the disruption of Victorian sexual norms. Lucy’s wanton kiss rejects expected restraint between women. It indicates her developing vampiric sexual power.
– It hints at latent homosexual desire. In a heavily censored Victorian context, Stoker conveys an intimate moment of possibility between the two.
– It amplifies anxieties around “New Women”. Educated, independent Mina models domestic ideals but also exhibits traits that threaten convention. The kiss reveals surprising passion simmering under her prim surface.
– It evokes a doppelganger motif. Lucy reflects Mina’s darker double. Their kiss predicts some unconscious part of Mina must face her own dangerous sexuality.
The kiss is brief but potent, resonating through the rest of the novel. It profoundly affects Mina. She is tested between propriety and passion, reason and madness. While brief, this charged moment leaves lingering impact.
Ultimately readers are left to interpret the kiss’s motives and meanings. But undoubtedly it introduces gripping sexual tension and danger into the narrative. The kiss makes clear that Mina and Lucy’s destiny hangs perilously between purity and corruption.
Sexuality in Dracula
Beyond the specific kiss, Dracula conveys complex themes around sexuality that were radical for its time. Desire, fear of the erotic, and blurring of accepted boundaries shape the story.
The novel links non-heterosexual sexuality with corruption and evil. But particularly through figures like Mina and Lucy, it also subverts norms of feminine desire and identity. Dracula unleashes the idea of women’s sexuality as fluid, unfixed, and less easily contained than Victorian morality dictated.
While the narrative drive moves towards re-establishing order, in destabilizing sexuality Dracula evokes questions that resonated far beyond its original cultural moment. The Mina/Lucy kiss offers a concentrated glimpse of the story’s compelling, sometimes unsettling tensions around desire.
Conclusion
In Dracula, the kiss between Mina and Lucy is brief but powerful. Within the constrained social era it was written, Stoker packed the moment with deeper significance.
On the surface, it heightens the dramatic tensions at this crisis point in Lucy’s transformation. But additionally, it speaks to anxieties around shifting gender roles, awakening female sexuality, and loss of innocence at the turn of the century.
The kiss foreshadows dangers Mina will soon face in her own encounters with Dracula. It also reveals the risk of unrestrained sensuality, personified in vampire Lucy.
For contemporary readers, Mina and Lucy’s taboo kiss introduces questions about accepted norms, women’s sexual identities, and the fluidity of erotic desire – issues that still resonate today. The kiss crystallizes Dracula’s complex engagement with the compelling and threatening enigma of human sexuality.
Key Points Summary
| Reasons for Mina and Lucy’s kiss | Significance |
|---|---|
| Symbolizes disruption of Victorian sexual norms | Rejects expected restraint between women, indicates Lucy’s developing vampiric sexuality |
| Hints at latent homosexual desire | Conveys intimate moment of possibility between the two women given Victorian censorship |
| Amplifies anxieties around “New Women” | Mina models domestic ideals but kiss reveals surprising passion simmering under her prim surface |
| Evokes doppelganger motif | Lucy reflects Mina’s darker double, predicts Mina must face her own dangerous sexuality |